Smaller Iowa County Now More Techno Enabled than the Most Populous County
This week, it was announced that residents of Black Hawk County can now text their requests for fire, police, or ambulance, to the 911 emergency call center in Black Hawk County, Iowa. This is being hailed as both a nationwide first and a definite improvement for deaf and hard-of-hearing residents who have thus far had to rely on TDD devices. Readers should not that, unlike voice calls, however, the 911 operator can’t get your location from a text message, meaning that the caller must first respond to a request for their city or zip code before the call gets routed.
Currently, only T-Mobile subscribers can use the service, but plans are to bring other carriers on board quickly. Other future upgrades include the ability to accept video and picture messages. All the operators ask is that you refrain from sending them those silly chain text messages — that sort of thing can be really distracting when you’re busy saving lives.
What I’m asking is if a small county like Black Hawk (Waterloo) can do this, why would the most populous county, Polk County (Des Moines) not be all over this setting a new standard not only in Iowa, but for the US. At least hopefully those in charge here in the Des Moines area will catch up soon.
By MulderDSM
Rate this story:
(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
Loading ...Similar Posts:
- None found
Permalink | Trackback URL | 1,376 views
Posted under Living Downtown | Last modified on August 9th, 2009.
Tags: Crime | Public Services | Twitter
